... until the square was filled with this incredible pageantry. The Flag Bearers then did this 'flag twirling thing',.. both individually, then in groups,.. finally the foot race was run over 1440 metres,.. up the incredibly steep hill into the town and the winner was a young man from one of the neighbouring towns,.. sadly he was not a local from Anghiari. It is now Monday morning and we head off to Siena to the next of the festivals,.. the Palio of Siena. ...

... some fabulous photos overlooking the piazza and the city. A little while later we met up with the Texan family we had spoken to on the train the day before when we travelled to Florence. Another area we visited was the piazza where the Siena Cathedral is located. An impressive building with a striped tower of white and greenish black marble. Hard to capture in one photo. On our way back to the car we stopped in at Basilica of San Domenico where the head and one of the fingers ...

... The roads were as windy as ever and we felt the truly rural and mountainous nature of this portion of Chianti. We got very excited as we saw glimpses of the town. It is on a hilltop surrounded by steep vineyards and orc******** all sides. Even with the overcast skies, the scenery was stunning.

... have, all at the same time. I have one pair of jeans that I have been wearing every day since we landed in Rome, Robin has been wearing a couple pairs of pants in layers and we both usually have four shirts and a windbreaker on and are wearing two pairs of socks at the same time. While this HAS been keeping us warm, it’s hard to do laundry when we are wearing almost everything we have and we hang our laundry to dry ...